Singer-songwriter Catherine Major knows a thing or two about music, an art that she made her career 20 years ago now. Four years after his Motherboard, here she is back on record, but this time without her lyricist hat, a stimulating but “stunning” situation. The artist offers The memory of the bodyan instrumental album which gives the there from the new neoclassical Alisma label.
The idea of making a record like this comes from Catherine Major – who has already offered the opera in 2022 Albertine in five steps on ATMA — and yet, on the other end of the line, the 44-year-old artist speaks of an “unsafe” project. “Strangely,” she admits. Music is my discipline, the thing I know how to do best of all areas of my life, it’s the only thing I know well. But the fact of removing the words… Then with everything that has been released as instrumental records, it’s a bit dizzying to go towards that, to know how to approach it too. »
Between what she calls “very written music” and her usual songlike approach, the pianist aimed between the two, leaving “room for letting go” to pave the way “for music that is very felt.” , very emotional.”
Indeed, The memory of the body has 15 pieces linked to as many moments of life, to which she turned for inspiration. Catherine Major had left her microphones in place around the piano at the house in the country, which allowed her to dive in whenever she wanted, whenever she felt like it. She speaks of “emotional jets and inspirations really purely connected to [son] heart and [son] body “.
She would then play, then play again, to satisfaction but not to perfection—which is what she would normally have aimed for. “I didn’t want to correct every imperfection, every time. There are chickens that we can hear behind, a car passing by. There is the magic of the present moment. »
At the heart of her memories, we find a lot of her “life as a mother”, she who has four children and each of whom has the right to their own room. Major also offers a musical pregnancy in 4 minutes on 9 months, one of the few songs where we hear voices used as instruments. “And after that, there is the street where I have lived all my life, rue Champagneur, there is my chalet at Lake Notre-Dame where I spent all my youth too. There are all kinds of moments really linked to emotions that built me, things in my life that still make me experience emotions. »
The disc, often waltzed, does not tell a continuous or chronological story in itself, the thread following an “emotive and harmonic” framework, she notes, to the extent that there are tones which follow each other well, which can downright confused.”
On The memory of the bodythe piano is at the center of the story, but it is also accompanied by a few touches of strings and English horn, the latter instrument being a hint of Major’s work on Albertine in five stages.
“Me, arrangements, orchestrations, I constantly have them in mind. I have a lot of trouble not hearing instruments when I write, says Catherine Major, laughing. There, I didn’t want a lot, but I wanted to put these colors on certain pieces – on others there are none either. I didn’t want to deprive myself, and at the same time, it’s not an orchestral album. » Question of balance.
These new compositions will live on stage next spring, but the musician is already rekindling the anguish of the void left by the absence of words. “It’s hard for me not to sing. On an album, that’s fine. In performance, it’s going to be a challenge! That’s why I plan to integrate poetry, to do a hybrid, because I have trouble not opening my mouth! »